The Cube

We did a room in Edmonton as we were up for the Comic Expo, so why not. This was recommended to us by one of the guys that was working at the Calgary Breakout location as he said he had a lot of input in it’s creation. The premise is that while the four (and only four, no more, no less) are in the same room, you’re tied down in a way that you can talk to everyone else around you but you all are only facing one of the four walls (hence a cube). All the puzzles required constant communication and usually one at a time, as each wall was different and each person had something on the other three walls that was necessary to their escape. This probably made it the longest time spent on a puzzle, as each person could only talk to one other person and only getting a part of the puzzle solved. A certain puzzle we found a bit difficult to read as it was smudged and couldn’t discern between one symbol or another. Despite making what seemed like good headway, we came up short with a whole section of puzzles just revealed left to be solved. One of the “rules” that was given to us in the beginning seemed to have hindered us as after opening something, we needed to do exactly what the “rule” restricted us against for a more timely result. That 45 min time does make quite a bit of difference. So it’s hard to saw just how much was left to do, but while the concept of the room was neat, the execution seemed like it was made to be difficult that a one-time finish wouldn’t be possible and that the draw if for the people to come back to beat it. Doing it again over a year later in a different seat with new people, you can tell certain elements have aged. Parts of lock boxes were broken after opening, the decorative elements on the walls were falling apart. The last puzzle involved lasers and setting them off in a certain order. While we got out this time, we probably could’ve made leaderboard if we didn’t spend more than half of our remaining time re-aligning the laser to their proper positioning.

According to the website, the premise of the room is that you and three friends are part of some ancient bloodline and we are the only ones with the ability to escape the ‘all seeing eye’. You start tied to a chair facing a wall, somewhat separated from your group. You need to communicate with your group to figure out the puzzles on the walls you can’t see to eventually get out of your chair before you can look for and solve the rest of the room. This sounded like a lot of fun to all of us and we were really looking forward to it however, once we started playing there we had a few frustrations along the way. First, three out of four of us had a puzzle literally fall apart after we opened it. I understand that there is going to be some wear and tear on a room, but if something is broken enough that it is going to fall to pieces once it’s not locked together, it should be replaced. The most frustrating part of the room was the final puzzle. We knew what we needed to do, we had it solved, but we had to spend a fair bit of time fixing the puzzle before we could enter our answer. Overall the room was fun, but it felt a little run down. Lastly, this room didn’t seem to be too concerned with staying on theme, other than a lack lustre attempt of using symbols in some of the puzzles. While I really enjoy when a company puts effort into the aesthetics of a room, it didn’t seem to take away from the game play, it just didn’t add anything either. All the issues I had with it could have been solved with a little bit of maintenance.

Before going to Edmonton we had a list of the must do rooms. This brings us to Breakout West to do the Cube. The concept of this room is pretty unique in that you are physically strapped down to a chair facing one of the four walls. This is a room that requires constant communication as well as patience, as one person could only talk so everyone can get that part of the puzzle solved. The room has seen its fair share of escape attempts, some of the lock boxes had broken parts and the elements in the room have shown its wear and tear. Once we all escaped from our chairs we had a final puzzle that included lasers. In my experience lasers are such a tricky element to pull off in escape rooms as you are spending more than half your time fiddling around with getting them aligned or working. My only complaint about the final puzzle is the room was really only designed for two people to complete so the remaining pair is left fiddling around. Overall the Cube was an enjoyable experience, something completely different from any of the other rooms I’ve done in the past. To quote one of our team members “It was a solid okay”.